In January, we will be working on fictional narratives as a class. As part of our study we are going to collaboratively brainstorm and write a story. We have been inspired by The Exquisite Corpse online tale that we have been following. The first installment is writtten, by Mr. K., but it was inspired by class ideas today. Our story will be a fantasy, but one that tries to blend some elements of realistic fiction into it. We will also try to use some techniques like flashbacks and foreshadowing so that we can learn a little how to do this in our independent writing.
Installment 1 by Mr. K.
As Derek woke up he couldn't remember where he was. His eyes were trying to adjust to the extremely bright light streaming through the windows, but he was pretty sure he wasn't in his own room. The bed just didn't feel right, plus there was a faint smell of lilac in the air and he knew that even his neat-freak mother wouldn't go as far as spritzing his room with some flowery air freshener. She was so mortified by his messiness that she never entered his room. After a few moments Derek rolled over and saw something that nearly made him scream.
"Hello," it whispered in a deep gravely voice.
"Umm, H-H-Hey," Derek shakily replied as he continued staring at it.
"Before, you try to run, you need to listen to me very carefully. Very carefully. Do you understand?"
Derek nodded to let it know he wouldn't be going anywhere soon.
"Good. My name is Varlen. As you have probably guessed, I am not like you. What I am is not important now. What is important is that you do exactly as I say. If you can agree to that I assure you that you will not be in immediate danger. Will you do as you are told?"
A million thoughts were swirling through Derek's head, but the loudest one was, "Not be in immediate danger? What does that mean? Will I be in danger later today?" But he decided that it would probably be smart to do exactly what Varlen wanted, so he somberly replied, "I will."
"Good. First, you need to get out of the bed immediately and as silently as possible put on one of the blue outfits that is in the closet."
Derek slunk out of bed and tiptoed over to the closet and carefully slid into what could only be described as a Under Armor-y royal blue jumpsuit. He felt like a giant crayon, but there was something about Varlen that made him feel like he shouldn't joke around.
"Good, now listen very carefully to me. You are now wearing the uniform of a servant, so when we leave this room, the others will think you are with me. No matter what happens, don't look anyone in the eye. When we get to my home, I will feel much safer about our situation. The only thing you really need to know now is that you apparently fell into some sort of portal. We have seen your kind before and some of us work to get you back home. We are not sure why you come here, but you all seem to be young and you all seem to have difficulty with understanding how serious your situation is. The last one of you that I found was taken prisoner within 30 seconds of leaving this room. So remember, don't look at anyone when we leave. It will only take us about 10 minutes to get to my home."
"Great," thought Derek, "This thing, this it, this 'Varlen' is telling me I fell into a portal - whatever that means,
if I look at anyone I will go to prison, and he will feel safer when we get to his house. And to think, I was worried about my geometry test when I went to bed last night."
Varlen got up, it moved like some sort of ape, but Derek was at a loss for how else to describe it. Except for the fact that it smelled like lilac and it was very hairy. "Now, come with me, follow behind and KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GROUND."
Varlen opened the door and a rush of cold air blew into the room.
.... end of Installment 1.
Installment 2 by Camden
One day earlier. Derek was on the playground playing 4 square when Antonio came up and punched Derek in the face.
WHAM. Derek was stuned and landed flat on the cement like dropping a brick on the ground.
"Thats what you deserve idiot" says Antonio.
"Why did you do that to him Ant." said Lilly
"Don't call me Ant, and if you do it again I'll knock you silly"
"Ok."
"Oww." "D are you ok." says Lilly
" Kind of."
"Well if you are kind of ok I got to make you not ok.
Now come here." demands Antonio
SLAM "What the,"
" How does it taste, that blood."
"Waaaaa teacher teacher." cry's Antonio
"Brad I thought you had H1N1 "No I didn't have H1N1, I faked it to get out of school ." says Brad
"Why did you do that." asked Derek
"Cause I felt like it, how about that little D." said Antonio
"I'm not that little."
Yeah right you are in 6th grade and you look like you are in 2nd grade."
"No I don't."
"Oh yeah you do." Said Antonio
"Fine you win." Answers Derek
After school Derek went home with his nose still bleeding, when he gets in the house there is know one home.
So he goes and plays Halo3 on XBOX360 for about 4 hours but when still know ones home he goes to his room and
goes to bed.
Installment 3 by Meredith
He recalled trying to take care of himself by washing his nose and pressing gause on it. After that he remembered somehow feeling very dazed. The rest to him was unknown. "Ah ha!" He thought still focusing on the ground. "That must of been the portal." " It could of been because I was worring about my geometry test." Soon they reached what was suppose to be Varlen's house, but instead of there being a normal house there was a little shack with an silver rainbowish mist all around it that I myself is unable to descibe.
"Okay" Varlen whispered. "Now we can talk, however we must whisper as I am doing, for my bosses men could be patroling my house." "You are now free to tell me anything, but don't say the word..."
He was silent as he wrote the word down on a fresh sheet of paper. Derek read it as Shobe.
"What does that mean?" Derek asked, "and why does it have a capitol letter at the beginning of it?"
"It" dosen't mean" he replied. "The word is a name'' as he added to the paper.
"My boss's name."
"Remember to whisper Derek" he added.
"H-H-How did you know my name is Derek?" Derek asked remembering to whisper.
"Well for some reason we servents will see the name of the what you call yourself person on the front of their assigned jumpsuit after they put it on." " We don't know why but somehow it happens." Varlen replied.
Derek had just remembered the deep gravely voice from somewhere else, but "where was it " he thought.
"Derek!" He whispered so loudly he was almost yelling."I was afraid of this, the patrol men are coming towards the front door, and they want to get you" Now he was talking normally. "You are to follow the same expectations of last time, but I will allow you to look on the ground around you." " I will let you do that because I want you to exit throught that little chipped corner over there" he said pointing near the back of the room. "When you get outside run as fast as you can and the first big rock you see stand on it like a soilder and forget anything ever exsisted!" Varlen was nearly yelling now since the breeze outside was so strong and Derek was already half way out the corner of the little room."I will meet you where you find yourself going and explain everything when we meet there." He added. "NOW RUN RUN RUN!!!"
....end of Installment 3.
Installment 4 by Alec
Derek was thinking about how to get through the small crack in the corner of the room. He fished around in his pocket to see if Varlen had put some spare pizza in the pocket of the crayon suit so he could think. But what he found was not what he expected. It was a flinstone chewy vitamin.
All Derek could think of was to pop the vitamin in his mouth he saw everything growing larger all he could hear was Varlen distracting the patrol men by saying "Look a flying hippo!??"
Then he realized he was getting smaller. Derek decided that it was the coolest thing that happened to him besides finding $100 bill in the parking lot. Derek ran through the crack and immediately grew back to his normal size. He ran to the rock jumped up on it and stood perfectly still with his hand in the salute position. Just then a patrol man came around the corner and spotted him standing there. The patrol man cocked his rocket blaster and said
"Any last words bub?"
"Sure, your rocket blaster is pointing right at you" replied Derek
"Thanks"
Powwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! Derek jumped down off the rock stole the patrol man's coat and his rocket blaster. "He he he, those guys aren sooo dead!"
Installment 5 by: Grace
Derek started running, he couldn't stop himself, he had to help Varlen.
"Varlen look at this" said Derek.
Derek held up the rocket blaster and Varlen said 'nooooooooo dont do it those are Dange-" Varlen did not get to finish his sentence before Derek shot the patrol men right in the stomach and ran.
Varlen said " wow my house is in shreds Ill probably go to jail well here its called polt", could my day get any worse.
Derek looked up and saw something, noooo somebodies falling right onto Varlen.
"Watch out" screamed Derek
Varlen instead just caught the person and said "Derek follow me"
The Next thing he Knew they were in the the same room Derek had started in, but there was a girl in the room with them and Derek hoped to meet her soon!!!
installment 6 by:Alex
The girl introduced her self She said Her name was "Anabella",
just then Varlen said "Lets get out of here and go to my house".
Right then Varlen, Anabella, and Derek were trapped by patrol men Anabella stabbed one patrol man in the stomach he fell to the ground. Derek said "Nice, one down four more to go."
Then Derek remembered that he had that rocket blaster thing so he pressed a big large button and exploded backwards then everything went black
Derek woke up when Varlen dumped a bucket of cold ice water on his head Derek said"Why did you do that the water is freezing"
and Derek wiped away some dripping water Varlen changed the subject by saying we arrived at my house Derek looked around and this machine caught his eye it looked like a portal so Derek took a look at it finally Derek did the last thing he wanted to do, he stepped inside it. Derek woke up in the room he found him self in the room he met Varlen in, he saw a duplicate of him self talking to Varlen then he thought he knew what happened he traveled through time.
end of installment 6
Installment 7 by Cassi
Gosh, I'm dumb, Derek thought. Talking to sombody I don't know that is grey, slimy, and looks like E.T. that speakes English. I'm crazy! Derek watched himself climb into a blue suit in the closet. "Nooo!!!!!" Derek yelled. He ran over to his duplicate and told him, "Don't go through the portal! If you do, you might end up in Varlen's house, travel back in time, get hit by a rocket blaster, get cold ice water poured on your head, and so on!! It's bad in there! DON'T GO!!!!!"
"Okay." His duplicate shrugged, got back in the bed, and was snoring within 5 minutes.
"Why the heck did you do that? Now he might be in immediate danger because he didn't do what I told him to!" Duplicate Varlen exclaimed.
But Derek was thinking about something else, about the fact that Derek the Duplacate wasn't at home, and since he had passed through his house on the way back in time, maybe since his duplicate hadn't gone through the portal, maybe he wouldn't get there, and maybe that wasn't the smartest move.
...end of installment 7
Installment 8 by Brandon
Derek thought about what Varlen had said 'Now he might be in immediate danger because he didn't do what I told him to!'then realized that if his duplicate was in danger than he was in danger! oops! Just then: RIIIIIIIP! CRAAASSSHHH! a giant creature ripped off the roof of the house and threw it onto the neighboring house! Then he smashed the floor of the bedroom sending the non-duplicate Derek out the window and he fell on... something. "the owner of these rosebushes is going to have a fit!" grumbled Derek. The creature, which resembled a mutant lizard or deranged dinosaur or something, lurched at Derek, uprooting several trees! Derek jumped out of the bushes just as the, uh... thing ripped them to shreds! Derek reached into his pocket to see if he had anything useful but all he found was:
A used napkin, 3 moldy gummy bears, A paperclip, 4 gum wrappers, a rocket blaster, a pen- Wait! a rocket blaster?! that is a really big pocket! Derek loaded it and...
Installment 1 by Mr. K.
As Derek woke up he couldn't remember where he was. His eyes were trying to adjust to the extremely bright light streaming through the windows, but he was pretty sure he wasn't in his own room. The bed just didn't feel right, plus there was a faint smell of lilac in the air and he knew that even his neat-freak mother wouldn't go as far as spritzing his room with some flowery air freshener. She was so mortified by his messiness that she never entered his room. After a few moments Derek rolled over and saw something that nearly made him scream.
"Hello," it whispered in a deep gravely voice.
"Umm, H-H-Hey," Derek shakily replied as he continued staring at it.
"Before, you try to run, you need to listen to me very carefully. Very carefully. Do you understand?"
Derek nodded to let it know he wouldn't be going anywhere soon.
"Good. My name is Varlen. As you have probably guessed, I am not like you. What I am is not important now. What is important is that you do exactly as I say. If you can agree to that I assure you that you will not be in immediate danger. Will you do as you are told?"
A million thoughts were swirling through Derek's head, but the loudest one was, "Not be in immediate danger? What does that mean? Will I be in danger later today?" But he decided that it would probably be smart to do exactly what Varlen wanted, so he somberly replied, "I will."
"Good. First, you need to get out of the bed immediately and as silently as possible put on one of the blue outfits that is in the closet."
Derek slunk out of bed and tiptoed over to the closet and carefully slid into what could only be described as a Under Armor-y royal blue jumpsuit. He felt like a giant crayon, but there was something about Varlen that made him feel like he shouldn't joke around.
"Good, now listen very carefully to me. You are now wearing the uniform of a servant, so when we leave this room, the others will think you are with me. No matter what happens, don't look anyone in the eye. When we get to my home, I will feel much safer about our situation. The only thing you really need to know now is that you apparently fell into some sort of portal. We have seen your kind before and some of us work to get you back home. We are not sure why you come here, but you all seem to be young and you all seem to have difficulty with understanding how serious your situation is. The last one of you that I found was taken prisoner within 30 seconds of leaving this room. So remember, don't look at anyone when we leave. It will only take us about 10 minutes to get to my home."
"Great," thought Derek, "This thing, this it, this 'Varlen' is telling me I fell into a portal - whatever that means,
if I look at anyone I will go to prison, and he will feel safer when we get to his house. And to think, I was worried about my geometry test when I went to bed last night."
Varlen got up, it moved like some sort of ape, but Derek was at a loss for how else to describe it. Except for the fact that it smelled like lilac and it was very hairy. "Now, come with me, follow behind and KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GROUND."
Varlen opened the door and a rush of cold air blew into the room.
.... end of Installment 1.
Installment 2 by Camden
One day earlier. Derek was on the playground playing 4 square when Antonio came up and punched Derek in the face.
WHAM. Derek was stuned and landed flat on the cement like dropping a brick on the ground.
"Thats what you deserve idiot" says Antonio.
"Why did you do that to him Ant." said Lilly
"Don't call me Ant, and if you do it again I'll knock you silly"
"Ok."
"Oww." "D are you ok." says Lilly
" Kind of."
"Well if you are kind of ok I got to make you not ok.
Now come here." demands Antonio
SLAM "What the,"
" How does it taste, that blood."
"Waaaaa teacher teacher." cry's Antonio
"Brad I thought you had H1N1 "No I didn't have H1N1, I faked it to get out of school ." says Brad
"Why did you do that." asked Derek
"Cause I felt like it, how about that little D." said Antonio
"I'm not that little."
Yeah right you are in 6th grade and you look like you are in 2nd grade."
"No I don't."
"Oh yeah you do." Said Antonio
"Fine you win." Answers Derek
After school Derek went home with his nose still bleeding, when he gets in the house there is know one home.
So he goes and plays Halo3 on XBOX360 for about 4 hours but when still know ones home he goes to his room and
goes to bed.
Installment 3 by Meredith
He recalled trying to take care of himself by washing his nose and pressing gause on it. After that he remembered somehow feeling very dazed. The rest to him was unknown. "Ah ha!" He thought still focusing on the ground. "That must of been the portal." " It could of been because I was worring about my geometry test." Soon they reached what was suppose to be Varlen's house, but instead of there being a normal house there was a little shack with an silver rainbowish mist all around it that I myself is unable to descibe.
"Okay" Varlen whispered. "Now we can talk, however we must whisper as I am doing, for my bosses men could be patroling my house." "You are now free to tell me anything, but don't say the word..."
He was silent as he wrote the word down on a fresh sheet of paper. Derek read it as Shobe.
"What does that mean?" Derek asked, "and why does it have a capitol letter at the beginning of it?"
"It" dosen't mean" he replied. "The word is a name'' as he added to the paper.
"My boss's name."
"Remember to whisper Derek" he added.
"H-H-How did you know my name is Derek?" Derek asked remembering to whisper.
"Well for some reason we servents will see the name of the what you call yourself person on the front of their assigned jumpsuit after they put it on." " We don't know why but somehow it happens." Varlen replied.
Derek had just remembered the deep gravely voice from somewhere else, but "where was it " he thought.
"Derek!" He whispered so loudly he was almost yelling."I was afraid of this, the patrol men are coming towards the front door, and they want to get you" Now he was talking normally. "You are to follow the same expectations of last time, but I will allow you to look on the ground around you." " I will let you do that because I want you to exit throught that little chipped corner over there" he said pointing near the back of the room. "When you get outside run as fast as you can and the first big rock you see stand on it like a soilder and forget anything ever exsisted!" Varlen was nearly yelling now since the breeze outside was so strong and Derek was already half way out the corner of the little room."I will meet you where you find yourself going and explain everything when we meet there." He added. "NOW RUN RUN RUN!!!"
....end of Installment 3.
Installment 4 by Alec
Derek was thinking about how to get through the small crack in the corner of the room. He fished around in his pocket to see if Varlen had put some spare pizza in the pocket of the crayon suit so he could think. But what he found was not what he expected. It was a flinstone chewy vitamin.All Derek could think of was to pop the vitamin in his mouth he saw everything growing larger all he could hear was Varlen distracting the patrol men by saying "Look a flying hippo!??"
Then he realized he was getting smaller. Derek decided that it was the coolest thing that happened to him besides finding $100 bill in the parking lot. Derek ran through the crack and immediately grew back to his normal size. He ran to the rock jumped up on it and stood perfectly still with his hand in the salute position. Just then a patrol man came around the corner and spotted him standing there. The patrol man cocked his rocket blaster and said
"Any last words bub?"
"Sure, your rocket blaster is pointing right at you" replied Derek
"Thanks"
Powwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! Derek jumped down off the rock stole the patrol man's coat and his rocket blaster. "He he he, those guys aren sooo dead!"
Installment 5 by: Grace
Derek started running, he couldn't stop himself, he had to help Varlen."Varlen look at this" said Derek.
Derek held up the rocket blaster and Varlen said 'nooooooooo dont do it those are Dange-" Varlen did not get to finish his sentence before Derek shot the patrol men right in the stomach and ran.
Varlen said " wow my house is in shreds Ill probably go to jail well here its called polt", could my day get any worse.
Derek looked up and saw something, noooo somebodies falling right onto Varlen.
"Watch out" screamed Derek
Varlen instead just caught the person and said "Derek follow me"
The Next thing he Knew they were in the the same room Derek had started in, but there was a girl in the room with them and Derek hoped to meet her soon!!!
installment 6 by:Alex
The girl introduced her self She said Her name was "Anabella",
just then Varlen said "Lets get out of here and go to my house".
Right then Varlen, Anabella, and Derek were trapped by patrol men Anabella stabbed one patrol man in the stomach he fell to the ground. Derek said "Nice, one down four more to go."
Then Derek remembered that he had that rocket blaster thing so he pressed a big large button and exploded backwards then everything went black
Derek woke up when Varlen dumped a bucket of cold ice water on his head Derek said"Why did you do that the water is freezing"
and Derek wiped away some dripping water Varlen changed the subject by saying we arrived at my house Derek looked around and this machine caught his eye it looked like a portal so Derek took a look at it finally Derek did the last thing he wanted to do, he stepped inside it. Derek woke up in the room he found him self in the room he met Varlen in, he saw a duplicate of him self talking to Varlen then he thought he knew what happened he traveled through time.
end of installment 6
Installment 7 by Cassi
Gosh, I'm dumb, Derek thought. Talking to sombody I don't know that is grey, slimy, and looks like E.T. that speakes English. I'm crazy! Derek watched himself climb into a blue suit in the closet. "Nooo!!!!!" Derek yelled. He ran over to his duplicate and told him, "Don't go through the portal! If you do, you might end up in Varlen's house, travel back in time, get hit by a rocket blaster, get cold ice water poured on your head, and so on!! It's bad in there! DON'T GO!!!!!""Okay." His duplicate shrugged, got back in the bed, and was snoring within 5 minutes.
"Why the heck did you do that? Now he might be in immediate danger because he didn't do what I told him to!" Duplicate Varlen exclaimed.
But Derek was thinking about something else, about the fact that Derek the Duplacate wasn't at home, and since he had passed through his house on the way back in time, maybe since his duplicate hadn't gone through the portal, maybe he wouldn't get there, and maybe that wasn't the smartest move.
...end of installment 7
Installment 8 by Brandon
Derek thought about what Varlen had said 'Now he might be in immediate danger because he didn't do what I told him to!' then realized that if his duplicate was in danger than he was in danger! oops! Just then: RIIIIIIIP! CRAAASSSHHH! a giant creature ripped off the roof of the house and threw it onto the neighboring house! Then he smashed the floor of the bedroom sending the non-duplicate Derek out the window and he fell on... something. "the owner of these rosebushes is going to have a fit!" grumbled Derek. The creature, which resembled a mutant lizard or deranged dinosaur or something, lurched at Derek, uprooting several trees! Derek jumped out of the bushes just as the, uh... thing ripped them to shreds! Derek reached into his pocket to see if he had anything useful but all he found was:A used napkin, 3 moldy gummy bears, A paperclip, 4 gum wrappers, a rocket blaster, a pen- Wait! a rocket blaster?! that is a really big pocket! Derek loaded it and...
...end of installment 8